Please help.
I've got long standing performance issues with my 03 plate V6 4motion and I'm at a bit of a loss (to say the least)
I've had the car 18 months from new and its coming up for 28,000 miles.
The car seemed fine when I bought it (as far as I could tell), but I started to notice a drop off in the perfomance, I guess from around 10,000 miles onwards, up to were I am now.
The car got very lumpy, a little noisy and I had to 'make' it move rather than the effortless drive it once was.
After numerous visits to local VW (!), and getting the usual 'no fault found in the ecu blah blah blah' disclaimer, I just happened to throw in a tank of super unleaded. The car was transformed into a performance car again, literally straight off the petrol station forecourt!
The power was staggering, throttle response perfect, and the engine/ exaust tone returned to the nice 'tinny rasp' which it used to have.
Great problem solved - I thought..
Within a couple of weeks, the car's performance started becoming irratic - great for a couple of days, lumpy and unresponsive for a couple, until eventually over the course of a couple of weeks the car's perfomance dropped back off to where it was previously.
Just to clarify ...the difference in performance between a 'good' week and a 'bad' one is amazing - When running poorly, I couldn't get anywhere closer to peak output which is at 6200 I believe, without first getting a 'breathless' feeling - However, when its running well, it pulls easy, smooth and strong, right through 6200....I stopped at 6600! - This isn't something I do everyday for obviousl reasons, but the car pulls like anything when running well.
So...I tried BP Ultimate - same happened again - brilliant, powerful, smooth for a couple of weeks, then irractic, and eventual drop off.
I continued the experiment using optimax, and additives such as 'de-toxic' which again worked great for a while.
I eventually went back on to BP Ultimate and the performance has generally been below par apart from the occasional 'good' week.
Anyway, after many frustrating months (and ??? of 'Ultimate' I decided to have a 'Superchip' fitted - I know about AMD and considered that, butthe garage able to do the superchip was local to me and I was aware a no. of people had been unsatisfied going down the AMD route.
So, last monday I had the 'Superchip' done and turned up to collect the car, in anticipation..
The test drive was disapointing to say the least. The car seemed rough and whilst not any worse, didn't seem any better at all. The Garage reckon that they'd checked power output before and after and that original output was fine and the superchip had made a 16bhp improvement.(no read outs available!?)
I relucantly paid the ?295 and left. I emailed Superchips the following day asking for a refund and a second opinion.
They eventually got back to me yesterday, inviting me to return to the garage and request a 're-fit'.
However, a strange thing happened last week.. The car had a full tank of BT Ultimate in it when the superchip was fitted last monday and I needed to fill up around thursday. I thought, well no point using BT Ultimate any more, and proceeded to put a tank of Texico super in there.
Over the course of thursday, friday, and this weekend, the performance gradually improved, and has continued to improve, even today. It's almost like, every time I turn the engine off and come back an hour later, the car has adjusted up even more.
Tonight for instance, I got home at 5pm, popped out at 7pm and the car was even quicker and smother than two hours previous.
I wonder how its gonna be tomorrow - its a trill to drive at the moment.
To the point where, a few days ago, I was driving it really hard to 'make it go' - now it will go as quick, using about half of the rev range? If I put my foor down, it realy does fly.
So...I don't know whether this a short term improvement, or whether the performance will hold, due to the ecu setup change.
Its almost been like the ecu can't decide how it wants the car to perform.
Unfortunately I don't have any technical knowledge, which doesn't help when trying to explain the problems with the car to a garage. They only see a snap shot on the day and haven't got the time to spend anyway, whereas I drive it everyday and know within about 30secs whether the cars' having a 'good' or 'bad' day.
I've ordered a 'carbonio' cold air induction kit as I thought that this might help the situation as the car does seem worse when warm, but that led me to read articles about 'MAF sensors'
Could this be the cause of my intermittent problems and if so, can I check / diagnose / change maf senors myself? Is this something that VW would have picked up if a problem.
Please - someone help. I really want to enjoy this car. I bought VW, and the V6 in particular because I thought I'd get good reliable 'high' end performance.
Unless I can resolve this once and for all, I think I'll have to sell it and I won't be risking VW again.
I've got long standing performance issues with my 03 plate V6 4motion and I'm at a bit of a loss (to say the least)
I've had the car 18 months from new and its coming up for 28,000 miles.
The car seemed fine when I bought it (as far as I could tell), but I started to notice a drop off in the perfomance, I guess from around 10,000 miles onwards, up to were I am now.
The car got very lumpy, a little noisy and I had to 'make' it move rather than the effortless drive it once was.
After numerous visits to local VW (!), and getting the usual 'no fault found in the ecu blah blah blah' disclaimer, I just happened to throw in a tank of super unleaded. The car was transformed into a performance car again, literally straight off the petrol station forecourt!
The power was staggering, throttle response perfect, and the engine/ exaust tone returned to the nice 'tinny rasp' which it used to have.
Great problem solved - I thought..
Within a couple of weeks, the car's performance started becoming irratic - great for a couple of days, lumpy and unresponsive for a couple, until eventually over the course of a couple of weeks the car's perfomance dropped back off to where it was previously.
Just to clarify ...the difference in performance between a 'good' week and a 'bad' one is amazing - When running poorly, I couldn't get anywhere closer to peak output which is at 6200 I believe, without first getting a 'breathless' feeling - However, when its running well, it pulls easy, smooth and strong, right through 6200....I stopped at 6600! - This isn't something I do everyday for obviousl reasons, but the car pulls like anything when running well.
So...I tried BP Ultimate - same happened again - brilliant, powerful, smooth for a couple of weeks, then irractic, and eventual drop off.
I continued the experiment using optimax, and additives such as 'de-toxic' which again worked great for a while.
I eventually went back on to BP Ultimate and the performance has generally been below par apart from the occasional 'good' week.
Anyway, after many frustrating months (and ??? of 'Ultimate' I decided to have a 'Superchip' fitted - I know about AMD and considered that, butthe garage able to do the superchip was local to me and I was aware a no. of people had been unsatisfied going down the AMD route.
So, last monday I had the 'Superchip' done and turned up to collect the car, in anticipation..
The test drive was disapointing to say the least. The car seemed rough and whilst not any worse, didn't seem any better at all. The Garage reckon that they'd checked power output before and after and that original output was fine and the superchip had made a 16bhp improvement.(no read outs available!?)
I relucantly paid the ?295 and left. I emailed Superchips the following day asking for a refund and a second opinion.
They eventually got back to me yesterday, inviting me to return to the garage and request a 're-fit'.
However, a strange thing happened last week.. The car had a full tank of BT Ultimate in it when the superchip was fitted last monday and I needed to fill up around thursday. I thought, well no point using BT Ultimate any more, and proceeded to put a tank of Texico super in there.
Over the course of thursday, friday, and this weekend, the performance gradually improved, and has continued to improve, even today. It's almost like, every time I turn the engine off and come back an hour later, the car has adjusted up even more.
Tonight for instance, I got home at 5pm, popped out at 7pm and the car was even quicker and smother than two hours previous.
I wonder how its gonna be tomorrow - its a trill to drive at the moment.
To the point where, a few days ago, I was driving it really hard to 'make it go' - now it will go as quick, using about half of the rev range? If I put my foor down, it realy does fly.
So...I don't know whether this a short term improvement, or whether the performance will hold, due to the ecu setup change.
Its almost been like the ecu can't decide how it wants the car to perform.
Unfortunately I don't have any technical knowledge, which doesn't help when trying to explain the problems with the car to a garage. They only see a snap shot on the day and haven't got the time to spend anyway, whereas I drive it everyday and know within about 30secs whether the cars' having a 'good' or 'bad' day.
I've ordered a 'carbonio' cold air induction kit as I thought that this might help the situation as the car does seem worse when warm, but that led me to read articles about 'MAF sensors'
Could this be the cause of my intermittent problems and if so, can I check / diagnose / change maf senors myself? Is this something that VW would have picked up if a problem.
Please - someone help. I really want to enjoy this car. I bought VW, and the V6 in particular because I thought I'd get good reliable 'high' end performance.
Unless I can resolve this once and for all, I think I'll have to sell it and I won't be risking VW again.